We struggle to reconcile our suffering with God’s love for us and His power to prevent or stop it.

Read Isaiah 45:5-10

When we experience hardships, we usually wonder why God allows these painful situations to come our way.   It just doesn’t seem to fit with His role as our loving heavenly Father. We struggle to reconcile our suffering with His love for us and His power to prevent or stop it. In order to understand what’s going on, we need to consider the possible sources of adversity.

A Fallen World: When sin entered the world, suffering came with it. God could have protected us from these harmful effects by making us like puppets who could not choose sin, but that would mean we’d also be unable to choose to love Him, because love must be voluntary.

Our Own Doing: Sometimes we get ourselves into trouble with our foolish or sinful choices. If the Lord stepped in and rescued us from every negative consequence, we’d never grow into mature believers.

Satanic Attack: The Devil is our enemy. To hinder anything the Lord wants to do in and through believers, Satan will never cease to harass us. His goal is to destroy our lives and our testimonies, thereby making us weak and useless for God’s purposes.

God’s Sovereignty: Ultimately, the Lord is in charge of all adversity that comes our way. To deny His involvement contradicts His power and sovereignty over creation.

For us to accept that God allows–or even sends–afflictions, we must see adversity from His perspective. Is your focus on the pain of your experience or on the Lord and His faithfulness? As believers, we’re assured that no adversity comes our way unless He can use it to achieve His good purposes.

By Dr. Charles Stanley
Used by Permission
https://www.intouch.org/

Further Reading

•  Attacks of the Enemy? Are you prepared for this?

•  Dirty Oven – Sin in our life is like a dirty oven

•  Salvation Explained

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The post The Source of Our Adversity appeared first on Thoughts About God.

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10

Misconceptions about God abound. But they don’t have to. God has revealed His character in Scripture, illuminating the attributes that define Him. Since we, being finite creatures, can never truly comprehend everything that God is, our starting point should be studying what God has said about Himself.

When we speak of God’s attributes, we are talking about those characteristics that help us to understand His nature. The list is long because He is the “Great I Am,” but the one I keep being drawn to is His sovereignty.

The Sovereignty of God is the biblical teaching that all things are under God’s rule and control, and that nothing happens without His direction or permission. God works not just some things, but all things according to the counsel of His own will. His purposes are all-inclusive and never thwarted; nothing takes Him by surprise. The sovereignty of God doesn’t just mean He has the power and right to govern all things, but that He does govern all things, at all times and without exception. In other words, God is not merely sovereign in principle, but sovereign in practice.

God’s sovereignty is simply to say, “God is in control.” There is absolutely nothing that happens in the universe that is outside of God’s influence and authority. As King of kings and Lord of lords, God has no limitations and by His grace, I am what I am. He is in control of all things in all places and He lives within my heart.

Father God, You are sovereign in all things. I praise You and thank You for living in my heart and making me who I am. Help me to keep my eyes fixed on You. Amen.

By John Grant
Used by Permission
John Grant is a former Florida State Senator and is a practicing attorney

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The post He is Sovereign appeared first on Thoughts About God.